Dan Levy Won’t Turn His Pansexual Schitt’s Creek Character Into a ‘Caricature’

Most Schitt’s Creek fans are hopelessly shipping David (Dan Levy) and Patrick (Noah Reid). But David has also hooked up with Stevie (Emily Hampshire), and he sometimes finds his way to Jake (Steve Lund), too. That’s because David is pansexual — an orientation rarely explored in film and television. The distinction has been directly addressed on the show, but as a bold statement, it’s one that co–executive producer, actor, and writer Levy sure as hell wasn’t trying to make.

“Hopefully we get to a place where this kind of conversation is just: We picked a person and we created a character and we told a love story,” Levy explained at Vulture Festival L.A. while discussing David’s sexual identity. “It was who he was. The pansexuality just felt like something that was so him and so part of his world.”

If there was an intentional move made by Levy, who is gay in real life, it was dodging the over-the-top, often unrealistic portrayals of queer people he sees on TV. “To me, as a gay person, our relationships get very caricatured on television […] to teach someone at home a lesson about what it is for two men to fall in love,” he says. “For us it was just important to tell a hopefully sweet love story for these two that was not aware of itself, but just unfolded over the course of the season.” And the upcoming fourth installment will certainly explore David and the other characters in even more depth, with Levy promising, “[It’s the] most emotionally substantial [season] we’ve ever done.”